


compromise

by perennials



Series: from the land of tumbling burrs (fic requests) [1]
Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, what a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 04:38:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6359617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perennials/pseuds/perennials
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takasugi's standards are sky-high; Gintoki sifts through the dirt for gold coins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	compromise

**Author's Note:**

> written from 11p.m.-2a.m. last night, half-assed the editing in the morning, Gintoki was supposed to put together a sloppy suit and bow-tie combo but i forgot to put that in, so you can just imagine it yerself, yea?

Gintoki convinces Sakamoto to drive him down to the dollar store after school on Friday, and between the latter almost getting his ears unintentionally pierced by a balloon-inflating device and the former falling asleep in the kids' costumes aisle (draped unceremoniously across a stack of furry animal suits) they manage to procure most, if not all, of the items scribbled down on the back of his hand. On the way back to Gintoki's after that they make a stop at the petrol station. He buys a ring pop, finishes it before they've even entered the car park, and pockets the cheap plastic ring.

"What's that for?" Sakamoto enquires cheerfully as Gintoki climbs out of the car, pointedly eyeing his left pocket.

"Oh, that." Gintoki picks nonchalantly at his nose. "It's for Takasugi."

"Ahaha— Takasugi?  _ Our _ Takasugi?"

"Yup."

"Ahahaha?" Sakamoto responds, though really he means to say "what the hell?"

He watches Gintoki cross the car park and step into the lobby with an expression solidly frozen in shock and disbelief. When he's sure Gintoki's out of earshot, he pulls out his phone and calls Zura.

"He's probably joking," Zura tries to reassure him as best as he can, but fails to sound even remotely comforting due to the fact that he says this while clumsily chasing Elizabeth the duck around his apartment. Sakamoto makes no move to reply, so Zura continues prattling on excitedly in a manner very much like that of a psychologist analyzing his patient. He gets as far as  _ I really don't see any reason for Gintoki to _ — then there is an ear-splitting crash and high-pitched, frantic quacking and the line goes dead.

“Of course, he’s joking, of course!” Sakamoto echoes aloud to himself. It doesn’t sound particularly convincing. He's really not convinced.

-

On a typical school morning Zura is the first to arrive. Sakamoto always announces his arrival shortly after by making enough noise for a crowd of a hundred or more, and then either Takasugi or Gintoki shows up next.

The latter two have been fighting to see who can get to class first since primary school, something that started as a childish spat when they were hot-headed kids but has turned into a tradition of sorts now that they are hot-headed teenagers. Unfortunately, both are blessed with the innate ability to sleep through an infinite number of alarms, so it's usually a matter of how many sacrifices one is willing to make in the morning, rather than speed that decides the winner. However, Gintoki's been falling behind recently (Takasugi knows this for sure because he's been faithfully and bitterly tallying their wins and losses for the last decade), sometimes slouching into class minutes after the bell's gone, other times not turning up at school at all. Which is why Zura is (rather unpleasantly) surprised when he steps into the classroom Monday morning, expecting it to be unlit and empty, and sees Gintoki instead.

Once Sakamoto's appeared, too, Gintoki drags them both out of the classroom and proclaims his brilliant plan to propose to Takasugi in the middle of the hallway. Zura balks at the very prospect; Sakamoto laughs and laughs louder and then laughs himself into the toilet, where he makes a run for the last cubicle and locks himself inside.

"I just need you to stand by the door and make sure he doesn't escape," Gintoki whines from the other side. Sakamoto's squatting awkwardly on the toilet seat; Gintoki can't see anything through the slit under the door but he's assumed (correctly) that Sakamoto is there.

"I refuse to be collateral damage in your ridiculous, highly-suicidal endeavor," Sakamoto says firmly.

Gintoki sighs, leaning his weight against the door. "Look, this is Takasugi we're talking about. He's silly. Sulky. Stupid. A hundred and seventy centimeters of pure teen angst. What's the worst that could happen?"

"You're just listing character traits now."

"Come on, I promise you'll get to see something good."

"You're not even of legal age to marry yet, what's the point?"

“It’s like reserving an item at a store. You’re staking a claim for the future, when you’ve got the sufficient funds or whatever, you know?”

Sakamoto furrows his brows in a most uncharacteristic manner. "No, I don't know."

And he does put up a decent fight, but eventually lets himself get talked into it. Ever so reluctantly— and slowly, so Gintoki knows he's not totally in agreement with his bizarre plan—  he flips the latch on the cubicle door and shuffles out.

"You're nuts," Sakamoto informs him with a pained laugh.

Gintoki gives him a crooked smile.

-

Gintoki stations Sakamoto at the end of the hallway, and puts Zura at the door, so when Takasugi comes stalking into school exuding his usual aura of intense negativity and Hatred Towards the World there is sufficient time for Gintoki to get down on one knee by the door and Sakamoto to run back to class and Zura to retrieve a party horn from his pocket.

“Will you marry me?” Gintoki asks with a very straight face, when Takasugi steps into class.

A painfully long minute passes in dreadful silence. The rest of their classmates retreated to the back of the room the moment they saw the strange procession, so right now there is only Takasugi, standing stock-still in the doorway, and Gintoki, down on one knee with a cheap yellow ring in his hands by the whiteboard.

"This is ridiculous," Takasugi deadpans.

Zura blows the party horn, timidly.

"This is fucking ridiculous," he repeats.

Gintoki doesn't budge from his position on the floor. "Happy April Fools’, not. What’s it gonna be?”

Takasugi, in reply, leaves.

-

He comes back five minutes later with noticeably ruffled hair and pink cheeks. Gintoki is still kneeling on the floor, looking a little more listless and studying the ring in his hands with a look of intense concentration. Sakamoto and Zura have magicked themselves out of the scene, probably gone off to seek shelter from the storm they expect will blow in.

“You know,” Takasugi starts, and his voice is a little small, though if you weren’t paying very close attention you’d be likely to miss it. Gintoki notices, though, and meets his eyes with a knowing smirk balanced on the edge of his lips.

“...we’re only sixteen. And marriage doesn’t sit that well with me. And even if we did get- get married, who’d pay for the rent? I can’t imagine you’d get a proper job. We’d starve. And  _ die _ . If you died that’d be fine with me, but I don’t really want to die that young. You’re lazy and unmotivated and gross and rude and you kick people in your sleep. It’s not really worth it,” he says matter-of-factly. Gintoki nods along in agreement, not because he’s got nothing to say in defense of himself, but because they’re all true.

“So, no.” Takasugi reaches out and pries the ring out of Gintoki’s hands. “But I’ll be keeping this in my custody, in case you try to spring this bullshit on anyone else.”

His objective achieved, Takasugi walks quickly out of the classroom.

He’s nowhere to be seen for the rest of the school day.

-

Takasugi kisses him on Friday afternoon at the bus stop. It’s soft and slow and a little clumsy, because Takasugi learned how to ask people to “fuck off” ages ago but probably never thought to educate himself in how to ask people to fuck  _ him _ , but Gintoki’s traitorous heart skips a few (hundred) beats, stutters momentarily, and almost stops.

“Actually, I change my mind,” Takasugi mumbles against his neck. “You’re a decent cook.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good enough for me, then.”

Gintoki has to bite his lip to keep the smile from stretching too far across his cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for readin. kudos and comments are cool, and so are you, but comments are the coolest of them all. takasugi is horribly out of character and incredibly tsundererererererererererere here please accept these half-hearted tired apologies.
> 
> have a good one


End file.
